An elite university is offering a fast-track program for tech leaders that's more competitive than Stanford

Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs all left school before graduation to launch companies. Peter Thiel has given millions to young entrepreneurs willing to pursue their startups dreams instead of a diploma. Thesethough that's often not the case.

That hasn't stopped one university from broadening its offerings for budding entrepreneurs.

A new program at the University of California, Berkeley, wants to launch future tech leaders by teaching the wide variety of skills required of them in the real world. The Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology (MET) Program

The program has already caught the attention of a top investment firm. Kleiner Perkins announced it will give an interview to every incoming MET student for its fellowship, which lets students

Michael Grimes, managing director at Morgan Stanley and one of Silicon Valley's most influential dealmakers, has been pitching Berkeley (his alma mater) on a program like this for years. Sitting in his office, which is decorated with certificates and trophies commemorating the IPOs he led for

"It looks like it is going to be the

Students have until May 1 to accept their invitations to join the inaugural class.

Part of the pitch for MET, which was largely inspired by the University of Pennsylvania's Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology (M&T), is that it offers a fast-track to C-suite roles in tech. Plenty of entrepreneurs study computer science and engineering in their undergraduate years, gain three to five years of work experience, and go on to earn their MBA. MET streamlines that path by teaching both disciplines at the same time.

Andy Chen, a partner at Kleiner Perkins who heads up the firm's Fellows Program and recruits heavily from UPenn's M&T program, is promising interviews to every incoming freshman at MET.

"You tend to find that the engineer that just doesn't understand life beyond code is operating at 50% capacity. To have a broader understanding of the business is super important, especially when you're the founder of a company or you're an early employee at a company," Chen says.

Grimes is hopeful that the next Mark Zuckerberg and Evan Spiegel might graduate from Berkeley. And someday, he wants to make them billionaires. "I'll do their IPOs," he says.

An elite university is offering a fast-track program for tech leaders that's more competitive than Stanford

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